Why is marijuana illegal?

[Hapless]

Because too many people touch themselves at night.

[O'Rourke]

I don't buy the "gateway drug" argument that if it was legalized all our kids are going to start shooting up herion by the time they can drive at all. When I was in HS and smoked pot it was easier to get ahold of than cigarettes and 10x easier to find than alcohol. Regulate and tax it and it would probably cut down underage use not increase it.

 

For the most part potheads don't give a {censored} who they sell to, businesses do care about losing their liquor license, fines etc though.

[futurism]

So it looks like we have a consensus
alcohol and tobacco should also be banned to end the hypocrisy
Im cool with that, I use none of them

[zehn]

 

So it looks like we have a consensus alcohol and tobacco should also be banned to end the hypocrisy Im cool with that, I use none of them

 

 

Um no. Opposite.

 

If it can get California out of debt, it could work for the whole country! J/K, but really it would represent a huge source of income for the Government. Plus all the money that they throw into the DEA could directed towards something like, oh I don't, education, new infrastructure, increases in American manufacturing, you know, things that create JOBS (such a hotword nowadays). Can't quite understand why they willingly throw money against a hugely profitable new business venture. I guess we need more of the older generations to die out before the deeply ingrained attitudes can finally drift away.

[homestar_kevin]

too many old prudes in charge.

 

 

give it 10, 12 years

[sleewell]

Strawberry Cough

 

 

 

Fire in the hole

[Slaymoar]

My opinion is that the population dissaproves of legalization because sensationalized media powered by government officials sponsored by lobbyists tell them they have to dissaprove and people are retarded enough to think this is the main public opinion with then materializes. Just like a failed boner.

[Slaymoar]

 

Weed is illegal because the government can't control the supply. The government doesn't actually care about personal use, but if weed were to be legalized, there's no way the government can control the growth and market of the product. They wouldn't be able to tax it, so there is zero government benefit to legalize it. Another big issue is that they can't control the quality and purity of the product. Suppliers could - and some do - lace their product with other drugs to get buyers addicted to THEIR product and not their competition. By keeping it illegal, the government is basically passing off responsibility for any issues that arise because "you shouldn't have been smoking in the first place". I wouldn't really care if they legalized home growth and personal use, but you still shouldn't be smoking weed while you're driving or standing in line at the movie theater. I would hate for all the stoners to spill out in public, because I can't {censored}ing stand them as it is.

 

 

The government could tax it if they wanted to.. something else is stopping it. All it takes is a bunch of people with power to dissagree and it won't happen. Reasons to disagree can be anything from money and range all the way to money. Lobbyists don't benefit from a taxed control substance.. so it would have to somehow not eat into tobacco sales. Weed would have monster sales and kill the tobacco industry, as tobacco tastes like {censored}ing {censored} in comparison.

[zehn]

 

...so it would have to somehow not eat into tobacco sales. Weed would have monster sales and kill the tobacco industry, as tobacco tastes like {censored}ing {censored} in comparison.

 

 

See I don't believe this would happen. People smoke cigarettes. They wouldn't just stop smoking. Tobacco is bigger than legalized pot would ever be, and I'm willing to bet the tobacco companies have all the things in place for when it goes through.

[Cropduster]

It is illegal because it's too easy to grow. Would not be easy to tax. Puts a dent in big pharma because people wouldn't need their product. Would also put a ding in tax revenue collected via alcohol sales.

[SnowStorm]

No, its not. Its the fact since you cannot buy it legally, illegal sources pop up. And while legal suppliers of products of any sort are rarely saints, they usually won't kill their competition in a literal sense. Addiction is merely a by-product which causes crime of its own, but that's highly unorganized crime. The crackhead breaking into your house for your TV or the prescription painkiller addict committing fraud to get more pills. Would all crime associated with drugs go away if they were legalized? Of course not. Would the super violent crime associated with the various drug cartels go away? I think it might to a degree. But, I personally don't have any hard data on the subject so its just speculation.

I agree but addiction is also a horrible thing. All of us typing here on the internet are hopefully probably smarter than addiction but the truth of the matter is that it ruins lives. I know people would claim to be addicted to weed and claim to need help when it has been proven that weed is not addictive. Addiction is a horrible horrible thing.

[theAntihero]

No, its not. Its the fact since you cannot buy it legally, illegal sources pop up. And while legal suppliers of products of any sort are rarely saints, they usually won't kill their competition in a literal sense. Addiction is merely a by-product which causes crime of its own, but that's highly unorganized crime. The crackhead breaking into your house for your TV or the prescription painkiller addict committing fraud to get more pills. Would all crime associated with drugs go away if they were legalized? Of course not. Would the super violent crime associated with the various drug cartels go away? I think it might to a degree. But, I personally don't have any hard data on the subject so its just speculation.

There would still be lots of money involved so even if they legalized it there would be some sort of crime involved in it.

[Sheik_Yerbouti]

Whoa... I can feel my fingernails growing...

[Ovid9]

 

I agree but addiction is also a horrible thing. All of us typing here on the internet are hopefully probably smarter than addiction but the truth of the matter is that it ruins lives. I know people would claim to be addicted to weed and claim to need help when it has been proven that weed is not addictive. Addiction is a horrible horrible thing.

 

 

Of course addiction is horrible. But lots of people are addicted to alcohol, tobacco, prescription drugs, etc. And currently tons of ppl are addicted to things illegal, such as your friend. There is always going to be a certain percentage of people who become addicts whether the substance is legal or not. Its tragic, but its facts. One could hope that if money was freed up from battling drugs, more could go towards treatment for those with problems.

 

There are no perfect solutions, but the current situation is not working. Why not try something different?

 

Also, psychological addictions are a bitch too. There may not be a true chemical dependence, but its not a walk in the park for people with that psychological/genetic makeup to beat it either.

[SteveiJobzz]

I think it comes down to prisons. I don't know the exact numbers but I think somewhere of 15% of inmates are in prison for marijuana related crimes. Can you imagine releasing all of those people into the public? The government would probably have to pay reparations and have several wrongful death suits from families of people who were killed in prison.

 

I, personally, don't see anything wrong with pot. But the cost to the government, if it decided to flat out decriminalize it, would be ENORMOUS.

 

What you'll probably see is a much lower rate of people being arrested for that for the next couple decades until the prisons are less full of pot dealers and then maybe 20-30 years from now it MAY be decriminalized on a national level.